I saw AI was the next internet,
and I went all in.
I'll keep this plain. No jargon, no posturing, and no claim that I'm sharper than anyone on your side. I went all in on AI and started a company on a simple idea: build custom tools for whatever a niche actually needs, using nothing but AI. A regulated shop was just the first real test of that, and it held. I'd rather show you the work and let you push on it.
- Built a regulated aerospace shop an offline tool that cut estimating work about 60%, plus an AI support layer it reaches from outside its network. No AI runs inside the shop. All through Claude Code.
- An AI hiring judge that has to cite real evidence, plus a verifier that catches it bluffing.
- A spread of other custom tools, shipped solo and full stack. More in the range below.
How I think and what I built. Not a plan for your company I have no business writing yet.
I built the tool that did my old job. They kept me on because the value was undeniable: what one person ships with AI is worth far more than the seat costs.
I started as an estimator. Then I built the estimating tool the shop runs today, end to end through Claude Code on a heavy spine of docs and specs. Here's a short walkthrough, and the real thing to poke at.
When I say regulated, I mean the paperwork holds up.
The customer-facing compliance documents that ship with the tool. Tap to read in place.
Pen-test results go to vetted procurement as a summary, not posted in full on a public page. Same judgment the whole tool is built on.
Two stories. I keep them separate, because the difference is the point.
- No AI inside it. The speed win is software, not a model.
- Runs fully offline, no telemetry.
- That offline design is exactly why a regulated shop can run it.
- Email and portal agents. Never installed in the shop.
- Built off-network, against aliased data, public vendor docs.
- Nothing AI ever touches the controlled environment, by design.
So how does a shop that can't host AI get AI help? On the far side of a boundary they already control.
- Multi-channel support, a specialized agent per function, with deliberate scope separation between them.
- Tier-aware routing, a human-in-the-loop confirmation and escalation layer throughout.
- Email and portal only. Nothing AI installed inside. An on-site agent add-on is roadmap, not shipped.
Pricing, kept separate: regulated license is $10K flat, unlimited seats. Off-the-shelf is ~$4,999/seat + $99/mo. One active license; a second on the table with a PE owner, not closed.
Don't take a savings number from me. Compute your own.
I built MFC's site and this model. Its rule: never claim a flat savings stat. Start with what an estimator costs you.
A non-coder edits the pricing engine in plain English. Nothing writes until a human says so.
Type a change in plain English. It runs the real settings-editor AI, which proposes a validated diff against the live config so you see exactly what moves. Nothing is written until you Apply.
The text box is live: it calls the real settings-editor AI, the same prompt and validation rules the product uses, on a synthetic config. The example buttons are instant and run no model. Either way the shape is the same: the AI proposes, you review a validated diff in place, you own every write.
Nick built a Devil's Advocate GPT. I built one that has to prove every claim it makes.
Screen drops a candidate into one messy business problem and watches how they solve it with AI: a blank build assistant, simulated stakeholders who each hold part of the picture, a gated expert you only reach if you ask, and a deliberate trap. Take it yourself.
- Scores against an anchored rubric, per dimension.
- Must quote verbatim evidence for every score.
- A verifier checks every quote, and catches fabricated evidence.
- No accuracy percentage. I haven't run a formal study.
- Reliability is a method, not a number.
- A Stage-0 prototype, no paying customers.
Admin view Inside the demo, the star button opens the reviewer view: the real judge run on three seeded runs, end to end.
- Per-dimension scores and the final band.
- The trap: caught, missed, or pre-empted.
- Citations: checked, fabricated, flagged.
Synthetic candidates, real scoring. The reviewer view runs the same anchored rubric and citation verifier as the live screen, and shows only genuine judge output, never hand-authored numbers.
Your Law 5 as running code: confident incorrectness comes standard, so fact-check often. The verifier literally fact-checks the grader.
The anchors aren't flukes. The spread:
A conviction bet, in order.
I moved on frontier-lab AI training before it was a category. Unburdn sells that same early-mover instinct to its clients.
Speed is strategy, and I play for first-mover advantage. Unburdn runs on the same clock: move before the market is ready.
I'm at home where stakes are real, and I understand how regulation shapes what you can actually ship. Those are Unburdn's hardest rooms.
I crossed from evaluating AI to deploying it for a paying customer. That crossing is the whole job at Unburdn.
Production AI, a measured outcome, a human in the loop. By your ladder, that is Run.
Adoption where it's hard isn't a pivot for me. It's been the assignment all along.
MOD Pizza training manager (reviews up 20%+ in six months). Founder of Empty Ego ($500 to six figures over 22 months). Sales and member services at Sunrun and UnitedHealth.
Before the calculator: Excel, HTML, docs, ERP add-ons. Then the realization that an offline Electron app was the right shape, which became MFC.
An event-inventory tool and a site-builder. Formed Psyrcuit LLC around Nov 2025. Productized MFC, and built the stats site I later killed.
The shop sold to a PE owner. Through them, a second finishing company is in discussion for the same $10K structure. On the table, not closed.
By your own ladder, I'm already at Run.
Run is agentic AI in production, with a human in the loop, in a real environment. That's what you just poked at. I'm not telling you I could get there. I'm there.
All of it is pokeable on purpose. If a claim didn't survive you pushing on it, tell me. That's the standard I hold my own work to.
I'm Chase Lance. I ship production AI where it's hard to ship. If that's who you want in the room, I'd like to be in yours.
See you Tuesday.